Chapter 285
For Hae Dae-seong, every single thing he had experienced since arriving in Rome was a profound shock.
He had been utterly stunned when he first visited Chang’an, the capital of the Han Dynasty.
The memory of that moment was still vivid—the absolute certainty that he was witnessing the majesty of a true civilized nation standing at the center of the world.
Yet the shock of arriving in Rome could not even be compared to what he had felt in Chang’an.
If the Han Dynasty had merely felt vastly more advanced than Buyeo, Rome made him feel as if he had stepped into an entirely different world.
For reasons unknown to him, Marcus had even assigned a guide to show Hae Dae-seong around the city.
He was able to tour not just Ctesiphon, but also Marcopolis, where new facilities were being constructed at a terrifying speed.
Temples and public buildings lined the perfectly smooth, straight roads, while hundreds of ships sailed endlessly up and down the flowing river.
A ten-meter-tall statue of Marcus boasted more precise craftsmanship than any sculpture he had seen in his entire life.
Beyond that, a row of twelve golden statues of figures he could not identify also caught his eye.
His guide mentioned that there were also statues crafted by Bryaxis and Leochares, though Hae Dae-seong had no idea of the profound significance behind those names.
He was treated to the finest foods and coffee at the hotel, and he even got to tour a factory that printed newspapers.
Naturally, Hae Dae-seong could not even begin to guess the exact purpose of the sprawling machinery used there.
He simply stood with his jaw dropped, utterly overwhelmed by the dazzling display of modern marvels unfolding before his eyes.
But the most astounding fact of all was that there were several more cities of this immense scale within Rome.
“Currently, the most developed cities in the Eastern Province are Antioch and Ctesiphon. However, since almost all the facilities in Antioch are scheduled to be relocated to Marcopolis, this place will become the new center. Ah, we cannot leave out Alexandria in Egypt either. And if you cross the sea, Capital Rome boasts a grandeur that surpasses even these cities. New cities are currently under construction in Gaul as well, so in a few decades, they will also boast a scale that cannot be ignored.”
“I see. But is there really a need to relocate the facilities from Antioch?”
“It is because a massive earthquake is scheduled to strike there.”
“Not that an earthquake happened, but... it is scheduled to happen?”
“That is what the Shahanshah said. Though it lies more than a hundred years in the future, Antioch will suffer catastrophic damage from a great earthquake.”
Hae Dae-seong wore an expression of sheer bewilderment, completely at a loss for words.
Yet the face of the guide conveying this information lacked even the slightest hint of doubt.
Logically, the idea of relocating a city simply because an earthquake would supposedly shatter it a century later was not something anyone could easily accept.
No matter how absolute the authority of the one making the claim, it was only natural to dismiss such a statement as sheer nonsense.
‘No, maybe it isn’t so absurd... if it’s his words.’
Remembering his conversation with Marcus from a few days ago, a chill ran down Hae Dae-seong’s spine all over again.
‘He told me to attack the Four Commanderies of Han, since the Han Dynasty won’t be able to spare any attention for Liaodong anyway...’
Marcus had even given him explicit directives on which commandery’s forces were weak and exactly what tactics to use in the assault.
When Hae Dae-seong had protested that Buyeo could not openly draw its sword against the Han Dynasty, Marcus had simply added that the Han Dynasty would collapse on its own.
He hadn’t sounded like a prophet foretelling some vague future, but rather like a man calmly stating an established fact.
Since he wasn’t demanding an immediate attack, but rather giving them permission to move when the time was right, Hae Dae-seong had no reason to refuse.
‘He says the Han Dynasty will walk its own path to ruin within a few decades, and a city will be destroyed by an earthquake in a hundred years... Can he really see the future?’
It sounded like utter madness, but since everyone in Rome accepted his words as absolute truth, even Hae Dae-seong was starting to feel confused.
Looking at the achievements Marcus had actually accomplished, many of them seemed genuinely impossible unless he truly knew the future.
He had even heard that Alexandria had already formally proclaimed Marcus as a god descended to the mortal realm.
‘If everything the Shahanshah says is true... then wouldn’t he know the future of our Buyeo as well?’
Hae Dae-seong was absolutely certain that he did.
Marcus knew an uncanny amount about Buyeo.
More accurately, it wasn’t just Buyeo—he seemed to have that piercing insight into everything in the world.
‘He knew the name of the current king, the fact that he has seven sons, that he took a concubine, and even that this concubine bore a son...’
Marcus had even known that the concubine’s son possessed far greater talent than King Geumwa’s seven princes, and that this had caused terrible friction between them. Hae Dae-seong felt a genuine sense of terror at that realization.
Unusually, Marcus seemed to harbor a specific dislike for the Han Dynasty compared to other nations, but Hae Dae-seong now thought he understood the reason why.
From the perspective of the true center of the world, how laughable must it have seemed for the ruler of Han to crown himself the Son of Heaven?
From Marcus’s position, destroying Han might simply be a matter of purging a fraud that falsely laid claim to the Central Plains.
Thinking about it that way, his desire to dismantle the Han Dynasty naturally began to make sense.
‘For now, let’s just observe a little longer. I must take back as much knowledge and as many goods from here as I possibly can.’
He needed to head out anyway, as the launching ceremony for the new type of ship was the next event on his schedule.
In Buyeo, there was virtually no opportunity to see large ships. He had only seen them a few times during his visit to Han, but he roughly understood what they were.
This would be an excellent opportunity to compare the ships of Rome and the ships of Han, even if only indirectly.
Boarding the carriage bound for the coast where the ceremony was being held, Hae Dae-seong’s chest swelled with anticipation.
※※※
In original history, the Galley traditionally used by Rome and Greece had served actively on the front lines for over 1,500 years.
This was because in the ancient era, when Mediterranean trade was everything, the Galley equipped with oars was vastly more efficient due to the Mediterranean’s constantly shifting winds.
However, the fatal flaw remained: as the ship grew larger, the required number of oarsmen also increased, making it incredibly difficult to improve cargo capacity.
Moreover, unlike a Sailing Ship, structural limitations made scaling up their size exceedingly difficult, and they carried a much higher risk of taking on water.
Furthermore, given the tides of the era, it was obvious that Rome would increasingly need to navigate the oceans far beyond the Mediterranean.
Most importantly, once cannons were introduced in the future, the gap in efficiency between a Galley and a Sailing Ship would become as vast as the distance between heaven and earth.
Adopting a design similar to Joseon’s Panokseon might provide a slight improvement, but even that wouldn’t serve as a perfect solution.
As for dealing with unpredictable winds, equipping the ship with complex rigging and multiple sails could mitigate the issue to a reasonable degree.
Marcus had gathered master craftsmen from Greece and Alexandria, pouring limitless funds into their research over the course of several years.
By continuously feeding them his knowledge of the future without reservation, he had finally managed to yield results after an immense expenditure of time and money.
Since this was meant to be a prototype model for ocean voyages, it had been constructed to be as massive and majestic as possible.
As this was the first time a vessel styled after a Carrack or a galleon had ever appeared, massive crowds flocked to the shore to marvel at it.
Spotting Hae Dae-seong staring wide-eyed in the distance, Marcus called him over to his side and asked for his impressions.
“I have never seen such a ship in my entire life. A ship that requires no oars... I truly could not have even imagined it.”
“Until now, the prevailing belief was that such designs were inefficient, so no one thought to develop ships in this direction. But in order for Rome to pioneer naval routes to the west, a vessel like this is absolutely essential.”
“With a ship like this, you could truly sail to the very edge of the world.”
“You say the edge of the world, but it would just end up circling back to where it started anyway.”
When no response came to his nonchalant remark, Marcus casually turned his gaze.
Hae Dae-seong was blinking blankly, clearly failing to understand what Marcus had just said.
“Did I say something strange?”
“No... it’s just that I don’t quite understand how you could return to the same place if you keep sailing straight to the west...”
“Well, that’s because the Earth is round... Ah, right. This isn’t an era where that’s common knowledge yet.”
From Hae Dae-seong’s reaction, Marcus instantly realized a critical mistake he had been overlooking all this time.
Indeed.
In this era, the East still believed the Earth was flat, based on the Gaitian theory from China’s Zhou Dynasty.
The prevailing theory in the East was that the heavens were round and the earth was square.
The understanding that both heaven and earth were spherical would only solidify into established doctrine later, after the emergence of the Huntian theory during the Later Han Dynasty.
But this was not what Marcus had missed.
In the West, arguments that the Earth was round had already emerged by the time of Aristotle, and Eratosthenes had even calculated the Earth’s circumference, despite a slight margin of error.
Ironically, it was precisely because of this background that Marcus had failed to consider one crucial fact.
The mainstream astronomical consensus of this era was the geocentric model—the belief that the Earth sat at the center of the universe, with the sun and surrounding planets revolving around it.
One might wonder how big of a mistake it was to overlook this, but if you were planning voyages across the great oceans, everything changed.
All celestial navigation established thus far had been written entirely based on the geocentric model, and any navigational techniques developed in the near future would follow the exact same logic.
When sailing distances that could be covered in a few days, this didn’t cause a massive problem.
However, for voyages venturing out into the distant oceans, the level of danger would rise exponentially.
This was because calculating celestial bodies based on the geocentric model carried a high likelihood of yielding inaccurate coordinates.
Holding onto a sliver of hope, Marcus approached the navigators inspecting the ship and asked.
“You there. Do you perhaps know a bit about astronomy?”
“For the Shahanshah to speak to us is an immense honor...”
“Skip the pleasantries for now and answer my question. How much do you men know about astronomy?”
The navigators exchanged glances, straightened their shoulders, and broke into smiles brimming with pride.
“Naturally, we can calculate the movements of celestial bodies with our eyes closed. Understanding astronomy is absolutely essential to perform highly precise navigation.”
“I see. Then what are your thoughts on the theory that the Earth revolves around the sun?”
“You mean the heliocentric theory?”
“Oh, so you do know it. Yes, I’d like to hear your perspective on the heliocentric theory.”
The navigators chuckled and answered immediately, as if the topic wasn’t even worth considering.
“Why, it’s utter nonsense, of course.”
“...Ah...”
“As far as I’m aware, Aristarchus was the first to propose such a claim. Aristotle did evaluate it as something worth reviewing at least once, but that was the end of it. It isn’t really worth discussing seriously.”
“Could you tell me the reason why you think so?”
Marcus pressed a hand to his throbbing temples and slowly shook his head.
Standing behind him, Spartacus and Surenas looked as if they hadn’t given the topic a single thought.
To them, the fact that the sun revolved around the Earth was simply an undeniably obvious truth.
The navigators, likewise devoid of even an inch of doubt, proudly rattled off their knowledge.
“First of all, it’s quite simple. If the Earth truly revolved across vast distances through the cosmos, why is there no stellar parallax effect? Furthermore, it makes no sense that we wouldn’t feel it if the Earth were truly spinning at such incredible speeds.”
“Exactly. Additionally, if the Earth were truly rotating, dropping an object right here and watching it fall perfectly straight down would be a logical impossibility.”
Surenas and Spartacus nodded as if they perfectly understood the logic.
On the other hand, snagged on an obstacle he had never even anticipated, Marcus looked up at the sky and let out a long, heavy sigh.
“Overcome one hurdle, and without fail, another one appears...”